Uruk Kleinfunde, III: Kleinfunde im Vorderasiatischen Museum zu Berlin: Steingefasse und Asphalt, Farbreste, Fritte, Glas, Holz, Knochen/Elfenbein, Muschel/Perlmutt/Schnecke.

• Author: Dunham, Sally

This volume is the third in the series of final publications of the small finds from the German excavations at Warka from 1912 through 1985. It is divided into two parts: stone vessels, by Lutz Martin (in collaboration with Marlies Heinz); and the rest of the materials listed in the title, by Elke Lindemeyer. Over two thousand objects are carefully catalogued while 131 plates at the back of the book illustrate many of the finds. As with other volumes in this series the presentation is clear and well organized.(1)

The first part, stone vessels, takes up most of the book. Here are included not only those vessels kept in the Berlin Museum, but also the ones in Baghdad and Heidelberg. These latter two groups had been catalogued by Marlies Heinz for inclusion in Uruk Kleinfunde I, but with the unification of Germany the decision was made to publish all the stone vessels together. Martin states that he has integrated Heinz's manuscript essentially unchanged into his own (p. 3), so that one should consider this part of the book the work of both authors. Six chapters precede the actual catalogue of vessels. These include a brief history of the excavations and the place of the stone vessels within this history, an overview of the findspots of the stone vessels, and discussions of the methods of stone vessel manufacture, petrography of the Warka pieces, criteria used in dating them, and functions of stone vessels in general. The catalogue (chapters 7 through 12) is arranged typologically. Complete vessels or vessels preserved enough to determine their original shape are presented first. These are classified in fifty-one different types and the examples of each type are presented in chronological order. This is followed by a chapter of accessory parts - spouts, necks, or lids. Then come fragmentary vessels - rim sherds, base sherds, and body sherds. Three short chapters complete the catalogue with "spoons" (or "ladles"), lamps (four examples), and a category "varia," which includes pieces that do not fit anywhere else or are known only from excavation records and cannot be typed. A final chapter summarizes some of the general observations that can be drawn from the Warka collection and gives the percentages and time ranges for forty-five of the types from chapter 7, which are shown on a typological chart on plates 75-76. The types not included here are either unusual pieces - bowl with cloverleaf-shaped mouth (p. 69), zoomorphic bowl (p. 72)...